Second Project (cont.)

So I was helping Andrew Hosker record his track and we had a little bit of time left over, so he kindly offered to record Bass for me right then and there!! Top Man!!

When we were recording Bass for his piece he set-up a really nice sound through the Behringer amp, and I decided for time’s sake and because my 2nd piece is a lot heavier in style, to use this technique. To create this sound we used a e602 to capture the Lower end Frequencies on the Driver of the amp and a Neumann just below the tweet to capture the Mid and High end Frequencies.

First an example of the e602.

And here’s an example of the Neumann

A few days later it was my Studio Session and I roped in (not literally roped) my Viola playing housemate Jules to come lay down the final part of my recording. I used the Loop Recording technique to get as many Viola takes as possible as I intend to cut them up and use several different takes.
But because people had already booked out microphones for Saturday and Sunday, I was left with limited choice, which as it turns out wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
I used two Hebden Sound Mics which are Cardiod, one pointed at the fretboard to pick up fretboard and higher frequencies and one pointed at the bridge to pick up the bow and lower frequencies.

 

 

 

 

Here’s an example of what it sounds like…

Now all my recording is done. Time to mix…

First Studio Project Mixing

I like the dry versions I have recorded, but to make them sound better I had to use some Plug-ins…
Referring back to the notes for this project, we are limited to High Pass Filters (HPF), Compression, Time Adjuster and Side Chaining on the tracks, and the Maxim Limiter on the Master.

Because I used two Bass Drum Mic’s in the piece, there was an  abundance  of Kick in the mix, so to combat this I put a HPF on the  Kick. As you can see from the Plug-in opposite I’ve filtered out the  Low Frequencies up to 98.9  Hz.

 

 

I have used Side-Chaining to compress the guitar when the vocals come in, so I have a clearer vocal line in the mix. The Release time is set to 97 m.s. so the guitar doesn’t come back up to full volume too quickly and doesn’t stutter.

 

 

I have set a very slight HPF on the vocals to take out the very low Bass Frequencies that manifest when using the studio because of the Generator room next door.

 

 

 

Here’s what the track sounds like after all that…

For both projects we have to use Maxim on the Master Fader, Maxim limits the levels so they do not peak, and for this task we have to limit them to 0.2 db. We then move the Threshold down (e.g. -6.4 db) to Compress anything that goes above this volume, whilst at the same time the Plug-in allows you to increase the loudness of the audio whilst maintaining the same peak level.

 

Here is a sample of the above file, but using Maxim

 

Trent Reznor Stylistic Study

Trent Reznor (or Nine Inch Nails as the name he releases most of his music under) is one of the most influential producers of the 1990′s. In his teens and early twenties he was involved with Synth based bands, and found employment at Right Track Studios and after hours at the studio began to create music under the name of Nine Inch Nails.

Things to look out for in Trent Reznor productions:

• Vocals sound very close and very dry
• Mashing up sounds in background – dry one moment, reverb the next.
• Stereo widening.
• Textural production – Looping lots of Guitars, a sort of wall of sound.

NIN – The Day The World Went Away (1999)

 

“What I wanted to do with this album was to make it imperfect. I wanted it to sound harsh and unsure of itself” Reznor on With Teeth (2005)

Something Reznor uses in Pro Tools is Looping Recording over and over, this enables you to record multiple takes without stopping. This is how you do it…

• Loop recording – Highlight area you want to record in to
• Options menu – Loop record (or alt L) (Puts a loop arrow on the record button)
• Select pre-roll (if you can’t find it open side bar and get it to open expanded transport)
• Set a pre-roll time to prepare before the recording begins
• Create New Playlists with every Looping – Main menu – Preferences – Operation – Tick ‘automatically create new playlists when loop recording’
• Press Record and do as many takes as you want.

Pro Tools Grid

Grid – Certain note values dictate how you can move the track
Slip – Moves a track wherever you want.
Shuffle – Throws earlier or later?
Spot – Used to place things at a particular point – Click on it and you can tell it what bar/wherever you want it to be. Good for using in films, for when you want it to play at a specific points.

Automation

Automation is a very useful in all forms of composing, and within Pro Tools you are able to automate tracks to change their Volume, Pan, and any Plug-in that may have been assigned.

• Select Track – Click the drop down menu where it says ‘Waveform’ Click – Select ‘Volume’
• Pencil tool (f10) – Click and hold – Square wave – Volume – You’ll get square wave pulses in Volume.

Automation mode is normally in read – but there are different modes, for example latch.
Latch mode will record movments in faders or pan whilst you are playing back.

To edit specific Plug-ins.

• Choose Track and Plug-in
• To assign a parameter click Ctrl, Alt + Cmd and select which parameter you would like to automate
• This will now show up on the track’s drop down menu where it says ‘Waveform’

 

Second Project

So Late one Tuesday (or Friday) night me and Mr Hosker descended through the Winter darkness to start on my 2nd Studio Project. The initial problem I had was that the song I was about to record had been written about two or three days before hand, so I spent the first hour and a half figuring out the structure of the song.

Finally though I made a decision and went ahead with recording. I  decided to use the vocal booth and 2 SE’s to record a very close miced  guitar. Using the idea of Nick Drake’s producer John Wood who  recorded Nick against the wall of the studio (although the reason is  because Nick was in such a fragile state of mind he didn’t want  anyone to see him play).

And this is how it sounds…

So Moving on from that we set up the drums in the Glyn Johns Technique, and used almost exactly the same mics as in the first project, with the exception of only one bass drum mic this time.
e602 – Bass Drum Mic
SE Electronics – Hi Hat
DPA’s – Above and Below Snare
Neumann’s – Overheads

As with any song you’ve only just written it was hard going at first to figure out exactly what I wanted, so it took a few more takes than I would have liked, but now I have about 6 or 7 playlists worth of Drums to use when trying to mix.
This is what the Kit sounds like together, with the Time Adjuster on…

Finally I recorded myself singing words that had been scraped down on my Macbook at god  knows what time in the morning whilst in the writing mood. Again when you haven’t arranged  a song, you’re not exactly sure how and where you want the vocals to sound, so quite a few  playlists later…

I used two microphones to record the vocals, an SM58 and the SE Electronics. I wanted two vocal tracks so I could try out the Reverse Reverb effect on one and see if it worked in the mix.

Here’s what the Original Reverse Reverb Sounded like…

And here’s the Reversed version (so the vocals are actually forwards) so you get the Reverb attack starts before the Vocal line.

Now after using this technique, I realised that within the mix the words would be difficult to hear and I felt this wasn’t how I envisaged using the technique. So I created another Aux track and put the SM58 vocals through it.

As you can see on the plug-in on the left I have added Short Delay II to the Aux track, using the rate, depth, feedback and mix, I have added slight differences in what was the same vocal track, thus creating my own Automatic Double Tracking.

There is still a place in the piece for the Reverse Reverb effect, I am going to use it to build up each vocal line, an example of what I mean occurs in the Radiohead song ‘Everything in it’s Right Place’

Second Project – Ideas…

So, now I’ve written a song for the 2nd Project, I’ve got to come up with ideas to fit it into the assessment guidelines (which isn’t something I usually have to do when considering an arrangement).
I’m pretty set on the idea of recording the guitar using the technique used on Nick Drake’s Pink Moon album. But other than that I’m pretty stuck.

On the one hand it would be really cool to emulate one producers techniques to create a song in the style of George Martin, Zappa, Eno, Reznor or Spector. But I think using a variety of different techniques from each producer may be more beneficial. It also means I can experiment with the ideas of many producers, and take the bits I like and leave the bits I don’t.

I certainly want to use Zappa’s Re-assembly or Xenochrony, because it’s a fantastic idea to pick apart songs and rearrange them in obscure ways. I think the Reverse Reverb is also pretty likely considering how obsessed I have been with Reversed sounds since I was about 16.

Here is a Nick Drake song I’m looking to emulate the guitar from

 

First Project (cont.)

So we headed back into the studio for more night time recording…

My dear chum Mr.Hosker was kind enough to play Double-Bass for me.

I chose to record with the e602 at the f-hole of the Double-Bass to pick up  the low  end,  and the SE Electronics to pick up the high end and fretboard  noise. I’m happy  with what  I’ve got recorded, there is a really nice  contrast between the Guitar sound  and the Bass  when both are in the mix,  without adding any plug-ins to improve  sound quality.

I have 3 examples of what the Bass sounds like, the 1st is of just the e602, the 2nd is  of just the SE and the 3rd is of the fuller sound it has together.

 

Vocals – I continued with my SE Electronics obsession and  used this Mic to record the vocals. Nice  and easy mono  track with a Pop Shield. I even remembered all the words to my own song. First  Project recording finished.

Frank Zappa Stylistic Study

Frank Zappa was a composer, singer/songwriter, electric guitarist and record producer. Over his career he invented numerous techniques in the studio, these are only a few…

• Reassambly Technique – Many mixes of many tracks. Producing Stereo mix downs on reel to reel. 5 track recorder. and then chopping the stereo tracks together from all different versions. making a collage.writing orchestral scores, limited by analog technology, on no budget.
• Recording wild – recording with 2 separate machines (this example is 4 track for the band and 2 track stereo for the solos), with all the solos recording separately to the band. making a catalogue of solos so he could choose which parts to put into different tracks.
• Xenochrony – Taking parts from different songs and arranging them into other songs they were not originally recorded for. Frank Zappa – Friendly Little Finger (Zoot allures)

The Bass and Guitar recorded together. Then moved to a completely different track and the Guitar solo comes from a different song.  Frank Zappa – The Ocean is the Ultimate Solution, Bass and Guitar from ‘Friendly Little Finger’

 

Double Tracking Examples

I found some examples of Double Tracking by some of my favourite artists online.

Bon Iver – For Emma

Sufjan Stevens – Sleeping Bear, Saint Marie

Elliott Smith – Rose Parade

 

First Project

I began my first project in a long 7 hour night session in the studio with Andy and Eliot. We each took turns to record parts of our pieces, I managed to get the guitar and the drums done, or at least recorded. There are mistakes in there, but I think I can edit them out in the mix.

I started by recording the guitar in a sort of extended NOS technique as I wanted it to sound as crisp and clear as possible, but also pick up fretboard and the sounds my hands make when fingerpicking as I have an unusual style of playing. This is shown in the photograph below. I quite liked the warmth within the sound of the guitar, to my ears it sounds better than when I recorded using the XY Technique.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And it sounds a bit like this…

Then we set about sorting out the drums, we all unanimously decided it was for the best that we stuck to Glyn Johns technique shown in the previous lesson, but we were using some different microphones to the recommended list.

Sennheiser e602 for the kick, however, we decided to put in another e602 closer to the inside skin of the drums to capture a more punchy sound, as well as having one placed just inside the sound hole.

2 x Neumann TLM 103s for the overheads, placed looking down between the hi-hats and between the  floor tom and ride cymbal, both equal distance from the snare.

SE Electronics Z3300a for the hi-hat, facing downwards on an axis to the  hi-hat with an omnidirectional polar pattern.

2 x DPA 4090 Omnidirectionals for the snare, one above and one below, out of phase.

The reason we decided to use the Z3300a was actually because the AKG 414s had been hired out during our time in the studio. But I liked the sound of this mic and am now considering using it, or at least comparing with the Neumanns, for recording guitar in the 2nd project.

And this is what the Drums sound like (with the Time Adjuster on)

Next Time…Bass + Vocals.

George Martin Stylistic Study + Other Pro-Tools Techniques

George Martin – popularised Double Tracking whilst recording The Beatles. Double tracking is where you use more than one version of any instrument playing the same thing. He then later went on to create Automatic Double Tracking (ADT) when John Lennon decided he couldn’t be bothered to do more than one take.
In the lesson we used a pre-recorded example of Double Tracking where the backing vocals have been quadrupled. We singled one track out and the track sounds a lot less full in the mix in comparison to double/quadruple tracking. In this case all the vocal tracks were re-sung, the quality of each individual take isn’t perfect, but that’s what gives it the quality in a quadruple track as well as a nice natural chorus effect.

Elastic Properties within Pro Tools – Stretching.

Elastic Time -

• Go to selected track
• elastic audio plug in selector – select + hold. If in doubt select polyphonic
• Analyses the individual tracks, you are then able to go from waveform view to warp view.
• Transient points are then mapped out for you in the selection.
• F8 to select grabber tool.
• Double click on the transient point you want to use as an anchor
• Get an arrow, telescoping wall, fixes it as an anchor point (stretch happens from that point, not before)
• Same again for the last transient point (ending point),
• Click hold and drag to other tracks.
• Cmd + E to cut at a particular point
• Time compression expansion (TCE),
• Trimmer tool menu
• Press f6 till you see a clock in the overview

Create the effect of a double track part (ADT) -

• Select main vocal (or whatever, main vocal in the example)
• Mono aux input – short delay mono – command click on the solo button of the aux track, should also be soloed
• send any send, bus any bus – name? maybe – input of the mono aux – sent to the delay that is inserted on it.
• Slapback = quick delay. – choose delay time etc. feedback up a tiny bit to add repeats to the delay. – depth & rate on delay window, modulate the delay and altering the pitch – idea is that the delay automatically manipulates the original track so you can recreate it digitally without having to record several takes of vocals.

Using backwards sounds within productions – In guitar solos/instrumental breaks, taking parts you’ve already recorded and reversing.

• Audio Suite – Other – Reverse – window with audio suite, click on process. reversed.
• Pull down menu on the track called a playlist selector. make a duplicate of the track (trackname.1) etc.
• if you want to see all versions at the same time. where it says waveform, click on playlists instead. all the takes you’ve made will be displayed on screen.
• Can build a track from the individual playlists, create a new playlist, highlight a portion from the existing playlist, and click and it selects that part of the track.

Reverse Reverb – creating reverse reverb – create a duplicate of track (or segment, (like before)) – reverse the dry signal.

• Create a Stereo Aux track (Reverb track) and create a Stereo Audio track (record the Reverb on to)
• Select a Reverb plug-in for the Aux track
• Select a Bus to send the original track to the Aux track.
• Choose a different bus to output the sound in the Stereo Audio track
• Input on stereo audio is the same bus send from the Aux track. so you can record the reverb in isolation. i.e. an audio track especially made for recording the reverb.
• Record highlighted passage has to be the same as the reverb length then it will work.
• Then audio suite menu, take reverse reverb recording and reverse it.

Vocal Alignment (matching durations)

• Extending from a particular point in vocals.
• Just extend last note. Put an event marker in, extend the one note.
• Analysis view. Choose pencil tool F10.
• Single click, puts in an event marker
• Switch back to warp, double click on point to lock from the point you want to stretch
• Stretch the note.

Punch in/out

• Shortcut Shift cmd P. or…
• Options – Quickpunch. you get a P in the centre of the record.
• 3 to punch in/out when setup. or F12.

Other Possibilities if you are willing to do a realistic study of George Martin’s techniques

Limiting yourself to an 8-track
8 Mono Tracks
As many aux tracks as there are players.
Aux tracks are set from the inputs on the ISA and then fed through to the mono tracks. so for example first 4 aux tracks into 2 audio tracks.

Signal Generator – Pink/White Noise or Sine or Saw waves. Mono Track or Aux, other menu. Adding noise to create analog effect. This is also useful to get rid of frequencies you don’t want in a track.